REVIEW: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

INFORMATION:

Title/Author: Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Series: The Dark Artifices (#1)

Release Date: March 8, 2016

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal

ISBN: 9781442468351

SYNOPSIS:

In a kingdom by the sea…

In a secret world where half-angel warriors are sworn to fight demons, parabatai is a sacred word.

A parabatai is your partner in battle. A parabatai is your best friend. Parabatai can be everything to each other—but they can never fall in love.

Emma Carstairs is a warrior, a Shadowhunter, and the best in her generation. She lives for battle. Shoulder to shoulder with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, she patrols the streets of Los Angeles, where vampires party on the Sunset Strip, and faeries—the most powerful of supernatural creatures—teeter on the edge of open war with Shadowhunters. When the bodies of humans and faeries turn up murdered in the same way Emma’s parents were when she was a child, an uneasy alliance is formed. This is Emma’s chance for revenge—and Julian’s chance to get back his brother Mark, who is being held prisoner by the faerie Courts. All Emma, Mark, and Julian have to do is solve the murders within two weeks…and before the murderer targets them.

Their search takes Emma from sea caves full of sorcery to a dark lottery where death is dispensed. And each clue she unravels uncovers more secrets. What has Julian been hiding from her all these years? Why does Shadowhunter Law forbid parabatai to fall in love? Who really killed her parents—and can she bear to know the truth?

The darkly magical world of Shadowhunters has captured the imaginations of millions of readers across the globe. Join the adventure in Lady Midnight, the long-awaited first volume of a new trilogy from Cassandra Clare.

MY THOUGHTS:

THIS BOOK WAS SO FREAKING AMAZING!! I was so excited to dive into this book, and it definitely didn’t disappoint. It was so fan-flipping-tastic!

I have actually been wanting to buy this book for the past year! Yes, a year. But, hardcovers are super expensive in Canada so I never really felt the need to spend $30 on a book. But, I was recently planning what book I was going to my vacation (which I just got back from!) and I narrowed it down to this one! I definitely splurged on this book, but it was definitely well worth it!

I remembered loving both Emma and Julian as twelve year old in City of Heavenly Fire. They were absolutely adorable then and made the book so much better! But if I do say so myself, they have grown into such a strong pair of Shadowhunters! The two of them as parabatai are great but as I slowly watched them fall in love, I found them as a perfect match. Emma is one of the most independent and strong-willed Shadowhunters I have ever read about. She is amazingly fierce and badass too. Julian on the other hand is a bit more conservative compared to Emma. He gets involved in fights but isn’t as into fighting as Emma is. And did I mention that he is SUPER HOT. Did I mention that yet? No? Well now you know.

Aside from the two Main characters, I also really loved the Blackthorn siblings, Cristina, Diego and sadly Kieran. Each Blackthorn child had a totally different personality. Tavvy was pretty innocent, Livvy was super duper bad-ass and looked to be following in Emma’s footsteps, Ty was seriously Sherlock Holmes’s twin, Dru was that girl you wanted to watch a horror movie with, Mark was learning to cope with Shadowhunter society. Sadly we didn’t get to see any Helen in this novel. But we did get to meet Cristina, PERFECT DIEGO and Kieran… and many others. I loved Cristina so much! If there’s anyone who can drink coffee a lot, it’s Tina! And then there is Perfect Diego! How Cassie made that funny nickname, I will never know. But he truly is perfect in everything. And Kieran.. I liked him until  the end. I really did. But he was just bad in that ending.

What I really loved about this book was the fact that it wasn’t like both TMI and TID. The first book in both of those series followed a teenager who was oblivious to the fact that they were involved in the Shadow/Downworld. But in Lady Midnight, Emma has alays known that she was a Shadowhunter. She was born into the Carstairs family, lived in an institute, and trained her whole life. She even has a Parabatai! It was a complete turn of events from the other books but I loved it.

This book has definitely become my favorite Shadowhunter novel! It was full of fun characters, plot-twists, and intense cliffhangers! It has definitely climbed up to its proper position as my 3rd favorite book ever and I feel happy with it there! If you haven’t read TMI or TID, don’t read this and go read those two series. Yes, all 9 books. But if you have read both of those series, what are you waiting for? Definitely go run to your bookstore and pick this up!

That’s it for today everyone! I hope you enjoyed this review! Don’t forget to comment, like and follow if you enjoyed this post!

Happy Reading

~Alaina